"Understood," Gue'rach replied before making his way to an engineering console and queried a program that governed the Moray's communication array.
He would have asked Astrid to assist him with this task, but after she had verified the navigational computer was indeed disconnected, Gue'rach allowed her to leave the bridge to try and resolve the problem. Therefore this was an issue he and Korax had to fix. During their initial briefing, he recalled Cake reporting that out of the thirty-seven transmit-receive nodes, only six remained functional after the others had been destroyed. With that in mind, Gue'rach set to work re-building the Moray's communications network with what remained of the six nodes. He started by disengaging the destroyed nodes from both the comms network and the electro-plasma grid, figuring that any - literal - dead weight cutaway would diminish the power drain that hemorrhaged the ship's dwindling back-up reserves. After tapping each crossed-out node visually presented on the terminal, which caused them to darken - indicating they were 'Off'- Gue'rach assembled the remaining nodes and re-introduced them into the communications network, now with a customized program; a setup Cake would have a better time working through.
Although before finalizing his design, he jumped to another terminal that regulated the EP flow throughout the Moray's power transfer network and began identifying any non-essential systems and decks that were deemed unnecessary. Like before with deactivating the power-flow to the destroyed transmit-receive nodes, he began robbing decks of their power and rerouted them to the communications array. Gue'rach however knew better than to disable them outright. Instead, he conceived a method of steadily siphoning power from the unneeded sections of the ship, therefore minimizing the spikes this could potentially generate.
Hopping back to the previous terminal, Gue'rach, now seeing the program identifying the newly established power-flow, established a few additional adjustments to the communications network, such as dictating the EP ratios feeding the communications array and cutting off all but the needed spectral bands, ensuring the only comms traffic was privately between the Moray and the Prize. Undoubtedly, the entire process was a painstaking task, if not an over-complicated one for the sake of subtly and stealth; he genuinely was now wishing Astrid had stayed. At the very least, he was able to re-visit the techniques he previously employed as a combat engineer with the KIDF.
"While it is imperfect, the communications array is back up and running," he reported as he monitored his work between both stations, "at the very least, Cake should be able to communicate and control the Moray now, assuming no further adjustments are needed. Hopefully, Lieutenant Faust is encountering better results on her end."
Just a few minutes later, Astrid radioed in with news of the displeasing kind; a bomb had been planted on the Moray. Despite the disheartening news, Gue'rach didn't show much in the way of physical surprise over his saurian facial features. Having worried about something like this only justified his concerns, enabling him to approach the issue with purpose. Astrid further reported being able to disarm it but she had then pointed out a potential problem; the possibility of them being watched from the pirate ship. Gue'rach thought about this prospect, closing all four of his eyes for only a brief moment as he pondered.
His eyelids swept open, "then we are already dead."
Gue'rach let that eerie line hang in the air for a moment, until realizing he had unintentionally made it much more depressing than he intended.
"Assuming we are being observed, Du-Vos would now have us as his prisoners and as such, are at his mercy. However, if this is to be true, why are we having this conversation right now? Surely, if we had been discovered, what is stopping Du-Vos from detonating the bomb, even as we speak? Assuming, of course, the bomb before us can be remotely activated."
Gue'rach started pacing around the bridge, "granted, we could become additional bargaining chips used against Captain Carabello. Although, given the time we've spent thus far aboard the Moray, I would expect Du-Vos to have raised this fact by now. Building on top of this fact, we would have been appraised of this as well by anyone aboard the Prize on secured channels."
He finally stopped and pulled up a visual sensor and displayed the feed on the bridge's main screen, showing both the Prize and the pirate ship face-to-face nearly thirty kilometers away, unmoving and definitely not shooting each other, "that has not occurred yet either. With these facts in mind, it can be safe to assume we are more than likely not being watched. To support this, I had performed several scans of our visited surroundings, and not once did I detect any listening or surveillance devices..."
Gue'rach's voice suddenly trailed off as his sentence brought forth new meaning. He quickly made his way to the tactical console and queried several security cameras on Astrid's deck and looked through the footage all the while pulling up the floor plans, "Cake, if there were to be such a device installed within the engineering section, where would it be likely installed to keep tabs on the bomb?"
